The New York Times today reported from Jerusalem that representatives of the Vatican in Israel have brought suit in Haifa district court against the Israel Government’s custodian of German property. The report said that on the ground that it is German property, the custodian has prevented church authorities from selling certain property in Haifa.
The Catholic clergymen asserted that the property at Haifa, consisting of several shops and a farm at Tabigha, had been registered during the British mandate as the property of the “Archepiscopal See of Cologne, which is entirely a creation of the Vatican.” Therefore, he said, the properties are not German but Vatican.
The Times quoted an official of the Israeli Ministry of Religion as stating that the Israeli Government was willing to make “adequate compensation” for the property, as it did recently in the case of Lutheran church property in spite of the fact that “this is unquestionably German property under the terms of Israel law” and “the best authorities we have consulted say that the church contention that there is an overriding Vatican ownership does not apply.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
